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Hershey annual/quarterly revenue history and growth rate from 2006 to 2019. Revenue can be defined as the amount of money a company receives from its customers in exchange for the sales of goods or services. Revenue is the top line item on an income statement from which all costs and expenses are subtracted to arrive at net income.

Hershey revenue for the quarter ending December 31, 2019 was $2.068B, a 4.04% increase year-over-year.

Hershey revenue for the twelve months ending December 31, 2019 was $7.986B, a 2.51% increase year-over-year.

Hershey annual revenue for 2019 was $7.986B, a 2.51% increase from 2018.

Hershey annual revenue for 2018 was $7.791B, a 3.67% increase from 2017.

Hershey annual revenue for 2017 was $7.515B, a 1.01% increase from 2016.

Compare HSY With Other Stocks

The Hershey Company is a global confectionery leader known for bringing goodness to the world through its chocolate, sweets, mints and other great-tasting snacks. Hershey employees around the world who work every day to deliver delicious, quality products. The company has more than 80 brands around the world, including such iconic brand names as Hershey's, Reese's, Hershey's Kisses, Jolly Rancher, Ice Breakers and Brookside. Building on its core business, Hershey is expanding its portfolio to include a broader range of delicious snacks. At Hershey, goodness has always been about more than delicious products. Hershey has been committed to operating fairly, ethically and sustainably. Today, the company continues this social purpose through 'Nourishing Minds,' a global initiative that provides basic nutrition to help children learn and grow.

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Hershey annual/quarterly revenue history and growth rate from 2006 to 2019. Revenue can be defined as the amount of money a company receives from its customers in exchange for the sales of goods or services. Revenue is the top line item on an income statement from which all costs and expenses are subtracted to arrive at net income.

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5 Major Chocolate Companies That Use Child Labor

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How much child labor is in the chocolate bar you're eating?

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WHAT IS FAIR TRADE | WHAT IS THE GOAL OF FAIR TRADE

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Manufacturing in a Fair Trade Certified Factory means ensuring dignified work, legal wages benefits, and enforce a strict “no child” or forced labor policy.

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My Fairtrade Adventure (for ages 7 to 11)

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Take a stroll down the coffee aisle of any large supermarket, and there's a good chance you'll see at least one or two bags of beans sporting a little label that says "Fair Trade." These bags don't look obviously different from the others on the shelf, but their price is definitely on the high end - at least $7 per pound, and as high as $15 per pound. What, you might wonder, makes them worth that extra money?

The answer is that when you pay extra for Fair Trade coffee, the money goes directly to the farmers who grow it. Fair Trade coffee dealers guarantee the growers a fair wage for their products, and in return, the farmers promise to provide decent conditions for their workers and to grow their coffee in an eco-friendly way. The same guarantees apply to other products bearing the Fair Trade label, such as chocolate, sugar, bananas, and cotton.

Fair Trade products are a hot commodity. The British newspaper The Guardian reports that global sales of Fair Trade products rose by 15% in 2013, reaching a total of £4.4 billion ($6.55 billion). Worldwide, the Fair Trade movement that year supported more than 1.4 million farmers and workers in 74 countries.

Principles of Fair Trade

The goal of Fair Trade is to reduce poverty for farmers and workers in developing countries. This means not just paying them more in the short term, but also helping them improve their skills, build up their communities, and protect the local environment so its resources will be there for future generations.

Organizations involved in Fair Trade, including Fair Trade USA and the Fair Trade Federation, have outlined several basic principles for both buyers and sellers to follow:

1. Direct Trade
Fair Trade importers work with producers as directly as possible. Cutting out the middleman enables the importers to pay the farmers a larger share of the money their products will eventually fetch on store shelves. Fair Trade importers often deal with collectives - groups of small-scale growers who run their own farms with little or no hired labor. To meet Fair Trade standards, the collectives must be democratically run, with each farmer getting a vote, and must split their profits equally among all the members.

2. Fair Price
Fair Trade guarantees farmers a reasonable minimum price for their crops, no matter how low the market price falls. Buyers promise to pay producers promptly for their goods, and producers promise in turn to pay a fair wage to all their workers. Buyers also extend credit to their producers - for instance, paying them in advance of the harvest - to make sure the producers have all the resources they need to turn over their goods on time.

3. Decent Conditions
Fair Trade requires that farmers provide safe and healthy conditions for their workers. It also bans all use of child labor and forced labor, which are widespread in many parts of the world - particularly on cocoa plantations, as CNN reported in 2012. Fair Trade rules ban all forms of worker abuse, harassment, and discrimination, including discrimination based on political affiliation or union membership.

4. Respectful Relationships
Fair Trade promotes open, honest communication among producers, buyers, and consumers. Fair Trade dealers do their best to give growers the information they need about market conditions, share what they know about the best growing practices, and provide technical assistance when needed. Importers seek to build long-term relationships with growers and work with them to solve any problems that come up.

5. Community Development
On top of the regular price for their goods, growers earn a Fair Trade Premium to invest in their communities. For coffee, for instance, they get paid an extra $0.20 per pound, plus an extra $0.30 if it's grown organically. These funds go toward projects like building new schools, providing scholarships, improving nutrition and healthcare, and digging wells. Farmers can also invest the money into their businesses, spending it on irrigation for fields or on organic certification, which can enable them to earn higher prices for their crops in the future.

6. Environmental Sustainability
Although not all Fair Trade products are organic, farmers are required to use sustainable growing practices that protect natural resources, including water, soil, and natural vegetation. The use of pesticides and fertilizers - particularly the most harmful ones - is restricted. Farmers also pledge to use energy efficiently and manage waste properly, reducing, reusing, and recycling whenever possible. The use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is specifically banned for all Fair Trade products.

7. Respect for Local Culture
Fair Trade dealers promise to respect the cultural heritage of the growers they work with. Instead of forcing them to adopt the latest, most efficient methods for growing or producing goods, they allow them to follow their traditional practices, while also teaching them about new techniques. In this way, growers can keep their traditions alive while still increasing their production to keep up with the market's demands.

Fair Trade Certification

Fair Trade certification is a way of guaranteeing that both buyers and sellers stick to the principles of Fair Trade. There are several different organizations that certify Fair Trade products, each with its own label and its own set of standards. To bear the Fair Trade label, a product must meet all the standards of the certifying organization, which inspects farms regularly to make sure they're following the rules.

Fair Trade Labels

There are several different Fair Trade labels you might spot as you cruise the supermarket aisles. They include:

The FAIRTRADE Mark
The largest worldwide Fair Trade organization is Fairtrade International. It works with more than 1,200 different producers in 74 countries, which employ more than 1.5 million farmers and workers. Fairtrade International employs an organization called FLOCERT to certify all its members and enforce its standards. Its label, known as the FAIRTRADE Mark, appears on over 27,000 products worldwide, including food, drinks, cotton, clothing, and jewelry.

Fair Trade Certified
The Fair Trade Certified label represents Fair Trade USA, the leading certifier of Fair Trade products in the United States. This organization, formerly known as Transfair USA, was once a part of Fairtrade International, but it split off in 2011, adopting a new name and its own set of standards. For instance, Fairtrade International requires all its coffee to come from collectives of small farmers, while Fair Trade USA also accepts coffee from large plantations run by a single company. Fair Trade USA certifies a wide variety of products, including coffee and tea, fresh fruits and vegetables, spices, wine, and clothing. Inspections for these goods are performed by a third-party certifier called SCS Global Services.

Fair for Life
Most Fair Trade programs apply to specific products and aren't concerned with anything else the company produces (companies may produce multiple products - some Fair Trade, some not). Fair for Life, by contrast, only works with companies that provide fair wages and working conditions for all their staff, as well as their suppliers - not just the producers of certain specific products. The Fair for Life label can be used for nearly any type of goods - food or non-food, raw material or finished product - and certain types of services as well. Currently, there are about 500 different products certified as Fair for Life, all made by companies that meet the Fair for Life standards. The certification process is administered by the Institute for Marketecology.

Fair Trade Federation Member
The Fair Trade Federation (FTF) is not a certification program; rather, it's a membership organization for U.S. and Canadian companies that follow Fair Trade principles. Individual companies pay dues to the Federation and get the right to display its label, showing that they're committed to the principles of Fair Trade. Companies don't need to have Fair Trade certification to join the FTF, which means they don't need to pay the fees both FLOCERT and Fair Trade USA charge for their programs. However, they must show that they meet the group's strict code of practice for all their products - a strict standard that only 50% to 60% of all the companies that apply are able to meet.

World Fair Trade Organization
The World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) is a global network of smaller Fair Trade organizations, as well as individual companies. The WFTO has a five-stage guarantee system to monitor all its members and make sure they conform to the principles of Fair Trade and to the group's own Fair Trade standard. Run from a central office in the Netherlands, the WFTO represents over 370 member organizations and 40 individual associates, spanning 70 countries and 5 continents.

UTZ Certified
The UTZ Certified program is not a Fair Trade certifier, but it stands for many of same principles: sustainable farming, safe working conditions, and better opportunities for farmers and their families. Unlike Fair Trade, UTZ doesn't guarantee farmers a baseline price for their crops, but it does pay them a premium over the market rate, as well as helping them improve quality and yield so their crops are worth more. UTZ monitors the farms it works with to make sure they follow its codes of conduct, which cover farming methods, working conditions, and the environment. UTZ is the largest program for sustainably grown coffee and cocoa in the world, accounting for nearly 50% of all sustainably labeled coffee - its clients include such major companies as Mars, Nestlé, and IKEA.

Differing Standards: Fairtrade International vs. Fair Trade USA

Fair Trade USA triggered a major controversy when it broke away from Fairtrade International in 2011. The main reason for the split was that the two programs didn't agree on what their standards should be for coffee growers. Fairtrade International requires all its coffee to be grown on democratically run, farmer-controlled collectives. Fair Trade USA, by contrast, hoped to expand Fair Trade by making certification available to coffee produced on large plantations, which are often run by a single large corporation, and by independent small farmers who do not belong to a collective.

Paul Rice, the CEO of Fair Trade USA, claimed this move was the best way to help the world's poorest farmers, who weren't really benefiting from the existing Fair Trade rules. In a 2012 interview with Just Means, Rice pointed out that small-scale farmers usually don't have enough land to support their entire families, so many members end up working on the large coffee plantations. Extending Fair Trade to the large plantations, he argued, is the best way to make sure those workers get the same fair wages and decent conditions as those who work for the collectives.

Many supporters of Fair Trade, including the groups Equal Exchange and the Fair World Project, argued that Rice's decision would weaken Fair Trade standards. They claimed that the only meaningful way to improve the lives of coffee growers was to focus on "disenfranchised" small farmers rather than expanding to larger plantations. However, research done by The Guardian tells a different story. Between 2009 and 2013, researchers found that in parts of Africa where Fairtrade International cooperatives dominated the coffee trade, workers actually earned less and had worse working conditions than those who worked on larger plantations - and the community projects funded by Fair Trade premiums, such as schools and health clinics, were often unavailable to them.

The bottom line is, while the two groups have different approaches, there isn't enough evidence to say that Fairtrade International's standards are inherently better or stronger than Fair Trade USA's. For those who care about the principles of Fair Trade, products with the Fair Trade USA label are a perfectly reasonable choice.

Fair Trade Products

There are many different kinds of products that bear the various Fair Trade labels. Most of them are agricultural goods, such as coffee, tea, chocolate, herbs and spices, sugar, flowers, and produce, such as bananas and mangoes. However, both Fair Trade USA and Fairtrade International certify some manufactured products as well, including clothing, wine, and sports balls. Here's a closer look at some of the most common Fair Trade Products (and where they're sold) to help you form more socially responsible eating and drinking habits.

Coffee

The Fair Trade movement first started with coffee, and coffee remains the most important Fair Trade product today. A 2012 report from Fairtrade International says it sold 88,000 tons of Fair Trade coffee worldwide in 2010 - about 1% of the world's entire coffee crop. The United States and Canada account for a large share of these sales - according to Fair Trade USA, these countries imported 163 million pounds (81,500 tons) of Fair Trade coffee in 2012.

Major sellers of Fair Trade coffee include:

Green Mountain Coffee is a Vermont-based roaster owned by Keurig.

Allegro Coffee is a Colorado roaster and coffeehouse that sells its coffees online.

Equal Exchange is a worker cooperative that has dealt in Fair Trade coffee since 1991.

Starbucks sells some Fair Trade coffees in its stores, along with other "ethically sourced" beans.

Dunkin' Donuts uses Fair Trade Certified espresso beans in all its espresso drinks.

Cocoa

Most of the world's cocoa comes from African countries, particularly Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), where child labor and slave labor are widespread. By buying Fair Trade cocoa and chocolate, conscientious consumers can be sure their money doesn't support these abuses of human rights.

Fair Trade cocoa comes from many countries, including Bolivia, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Nicaragua, Peru, and Sri Lanka. It's used in a variety of products, both organic and conventional, including chocolate bars, hot chocolate mix, and ice cream.

Companies that use some or all Fair Trade cocoa in their products include:

Ben & Jerry's uses Fair Trade ingredients in all its ice cream flavors.

Cadbury uses Faitrade International cocoa in its Dairy Milk Chocolate products.

Chocolove is a chocolate company that sources all its chocolate sustainably and makes three bars that are both Fair Trade and organic.

Divine Chocolate is co-owned by Kuapa Kokoo, a Fairtrade International collective of cocoa farmers.

Endangered Species Chocolate is the first company to produce chocolate in the United States from Fair Trade cocoa.

Green & Black's is a 100% organic chocolate company that produced the first Fairtrade International certified chocolate bar in Britain.

Theo Chocolate is a Fair for Life company that produces organic, Fair Trade chocolate in its Seattle factory.

Clothing and Textiles

Clothing is one of the newest Fair Trade products, but it's growing quickly. A 2015 article in MarketWatch reports that the amount of Fair Trade apparel and home goods on the market grew to almost five times its former size during 2014. Factories that make Fair Trade clothing must meet standards for environmental health, wages, working conditions, and workers' rights.

You can find Fair Trade clothing and home products at many different retailers. Some of them deal exclusively in Fair Trade clothing and home products, while others sell just a few specific products that carry the Fair Trade label.

Sellers of Fair Trade clothing and textiles include:

BeGood Clothing is an online retailer based in San Francisco that sells casual clothing for men and women.

Fair Indigo is an online retailer that sells organic, Fair Trade, and locally sourced women's clothing and accessories.

Good & Fair Clothing Co. is an online seller of organic tees and underwear that are "certified Fair Trade from farm to factory."

Maggie's Organics buys organic cotton and wool directly from the growers to be processed into knitwear in its North Carolina warehouse.

Patagonia is a major seller of outdoor sports gear that offers an assortment of Fair Trade activewear and outerwear for men and women.

prAna is a yoga company that was the first major apparel company in North American to be certified by Fair Trade USA.

West Elm is the first retailer in the world to offer Fair Trade Certified rugs.

Crafts

Fair Trade USA and Fairtrade International do not provide certification for craft items, such as handmade jewelry, pottery, and artwork. However, there are several importers and retailers that follow Fair Trade principles when dealing with craft workers. These include:

Fair Trade Federation distributes clothing, jewelry, housewares, accessories, and even musical instruments through a wide variety of stores and online markets. As noted above, FTF members don't have to have Fair Trade certification, but they must adhere to the FTF's strict code of conduct.

SERRV is a nonprofit organization that sells handmade gifts, clothing, jewelry, and home decor made by artisans throughout the developing world. SEERV is a founding member of the WFTO and FTF, and it pledges to follow Fair Trade principles in all its dealings with its artisan and farmer partners.

Bead for Life sells bead jewelry made by Ugandan women from colorful recycled paper. Bead for Life, a member of the FTF and the WFTO, says that increasing women's income helps reduce poverty, improve the lives of children, and reduce domestic violence.

Ten Thousand Villages is a nonprofit organization that sells jewelry, home decor, and gifts in stores throughout the United States and Canada. Ten Thousand Villages is a founding member of the WFTO and is committed to fair wages, long-term relationships with artisans, and environmental sustainability.

Fair Trade on a Budget

Though Fair Trade is growing fast, Fair Trade goods still account for a fairly small of the market. One reason for this is that they often cost more than other products in the same category. That's hardly surprising, considering that Fair Trade pays farmers a higher price for their crops.

On the other hand, since Fair Trade importers work directly with farmers and eliminate the middleman, the higher prices the farmers get paid don't always translate into higher prices for the consumer. Fair Trade USA points out in its FAQ that while some Fair Trade Certified products, such as bananas, tend to cost much more than conventional versions, Fair Trade Certified coffee and chocolate cost about the same as "other gourmet specialty coffees and chocolates."

In fact, in some cases, Fair Trade products actually cost slightly less than conventional equivalents. For instance, a one-pound bag of organic, Fair Trade coffee from the Congo region costs $12 in the Equal Exchange online store, while a one-pound bag of Ethiopian coffee from Starbucks - which is neither Fair Trade nor organic - costs $14. A simple sleeveless cotton dress from Mata Traders, made by a Fair Trade women's cooperative in India, costs $85; a similar dress from ModCloth, which is not Fair Trade, costs $110.

Still, if you're used to buying the cheapest coffee on the shelf, it's easy to get sticker shock from the "gourmet" price of a Fair Trade equivalent. Here are several tips for shopping Fair Trade without blowing your budget:

1. Buy in Bulk. Many natural foods stores sell whole-bean coffee in bulk bins, often at a lower price per pound than similar coffees sold in bags. You can also buy your coffee online in five-pound bags from a Fair Trade dealer like Dean's Beans and pay less than $10 a pound, including shipping.

2. Try Store Brands. Trader Joe's house brand offers several Fair Trade coffee varieties for $10 a pound or less. Archer Farms, a store brand available at Target, has several coffees that are Fair Trade or Direct Trade - that is, bought straight from the growers - at $8.49 for a 12-ounce bag, or around $11.32 per pound.

3. Shop "Light" Fair Trade. Brands that are not Fair Trade certified can still promote the goals of Fair Trade. For instance, you can buy UTZ Certified coffee at IKEA for about $7.25 a pound and UTZ Certified chocolate bars for $1 apiece. Costco also sells some brands of coffee that are not Fair Trade Certified but say in their product descriptions, "We work with the farmers to supply healthcare, housing, meal programs, and education to the workers and their families."

4. Look for Sales. You can often find Fair Trade clothing and craft items on sale at physical stores, such as Ten Thousand Villages, and online retailers, such as Fair Indigo. Both stores have clearance sections as well.

Final Word

Shopping Fair Trade can sometimes cost more, and it definitely doesn't offer you as wide a selection as having every product in a shopping mall - or on the Internet - at your disposal. However, the products that are available, whether for coffee, chocolate, or clothes, tend to be high quality. So choosing Fair Trade products can be a way to treat yourself and help others out of poverty at the same time.

If the higher price of Fair Trade goods is a deterrent for you, remember that you don't have to buy them all the time. Switching just a small amount of your consumption to Fair Trade can make a difference without making too big a dent in your wallet.

Do you buy Fair Trade products? Why or why not?

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What Is Fair Trade and What Does It Mean? - Definition, Products & Facts

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Take a stroll down the coffee aisle of any large supermarket, and there's a good chance you'll see at least one or two bags of beans sporting a little label that says "Fair Trade."

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When it comes to buying chocolate, most people look for the big brands, such as Hershey's, Godiva and Ghirardelli. However, purchasing from these companies supports unsafe and unhealthy working environments that enforce illegal labor tactics. Many people do not know that behind all these big chocolate brands are children working in dangerous environments. Fortunately, there is a better way to satisfy your chocolate cravings without feeling guilty: Buy fair trade chocolates!
What is fair trade?
Fair trade is a movement of farmers, workers, businesses and consumers working to create justice in our global supply chain. This movement gives small farmers, workers and fishermen a voice in the workplace and community. It also ensures that they are earning enough money to invest in their lives and their work. In addition to helping the farmers, workers and fishermen, fair trade focuses on environmentally friendly farming practices by prohibiting especially harmful chemicals and taking measures to maintain the beauty of this planet.
What does this have to do with chocolates?
Many people are unaware that, due to climate change, cocoa trees are facing danger. Unfortunately, due to high demand for chocolate, large companies look the other way and continue to harvest cocoa trees using unsustainable practices. Fair trade companies ensure that their products have been sustainably harvested and the trees have been grown without the use of harsh fertilizers and pesticides. Besides environmentally friendly farming, fair trade companies also focus on safe and healthy working environments. According to a study published by Tulane University in 2010, over 1.8 million children work on cocoa farms in Ghana and the Ivory Coast. Usually, these children are foregoing an education to work in these harsh, life-threatening environments. Fair trade companies make sure that cocoa farms are sustainable and that they prohibit child labor.
Where can I buy fair trade chocolates?
Although big companies like Nestlé and Hershey's are working toward reducing child labor and improving cocoa communities in West Africa, this process will likely take a long time; therefore, it is better to start buying fair trade. This provides a list of fair trade chocolate brands that are available for purchase in local stores. Luckily, as Gauchos, we do not need to go far to find fair trade chocolates. The Isla Vista Food Cooperative supplies several fair trade chocolate brands with a variety of flavors. So, the next time you want to purchase some chocolate, consider the negative effects that may result from your purchase, head down to a local store and look for the Fair Trade Certified seal to enjoy some guilt-free chocolates.

Although this article focuses on fair trade chocolate, fair trade practices extend to other products, such as clothes and home goods. For more information on the fair trade movement and other products, feel free to visit the Fair Trade Certified and FairTrade America .

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When it comes to buying chocolate, most people look for the big brands, such as Hershey's, Godiva and Ghirardelli. However, purchasing from these companies supports unsafe and unhealthy working environments that enforce illegal labor tactics. Many people do not know that behind all these big chocolate brands are children working in dangerous environments.

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Article explains causes/solutions to fair trade chocolate

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Article explains causes/solutions to fair trade chocolate

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All of the information below about chocolate and child slavery is also located in my resources section in PDF form for passing out to friends and using in groups. The free PDF contains extra information on slave-free chocolate brands, practical tips for fighting against slavery in the chocolate industry, and additional resources.
Did you know?

A huge percentage of the world's chocolate comes from small farms in West Africa, and unfortunately, many of those farms are using child slaves - in particular, the cacao-rich country Ivory Coast.

The problem made international news in 2001, and the large chocolate companies promised to remove slavery from their supply chain by 2005, then 2008. But 2005 and 2008 came and went, without evidence of any significant changes being made. By 2010, all major chocolate companies have promised to begin moving toward slave-free chocolate. The changes, however, have been slow.

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How It Happens

Child cocoa slaves - mostly boys - are trafficked into West Africa from neighboring countries. Sometimes traffickers promise the boy money, bicycles, and a chance to give their parents a better life. Sometimes the boys' families knowingly sell them.

But the boys arrive on farms to find these promises broken. Instead of a better life, they are thrown in small huts and forced to work against their wills for no pay. They sleep on wooden planks and endure brutal beatings when the bags of beans are too heavy for their bodies' small frames.

The cacao beans these child slaves harvest get mixed together with other beans from around the world. By the time you bite into that delicious fudge brownie, slave beans and free beans have been blended too many times to know which chocolate is tainted with the blood of child slaves.

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Why It Happens

The problem has complex causes. Extreme poverty and low pay from the large chocolate companies force many farmers to cut costs to an extreme in order to survive. Corrupt government systems interfere with prosecution and determent of traffickers. And consumers demand the cheapest goods possible.

Violence has silenced the few people who research the cacao farms' labor practices, as some journalists attempting to report on the issue have been captured and killed.

The Solution

Fortunately, the solution is much simpler than the causes, and you don't have to be a politician, social worker or lawyer to be a part of it.

If consumers change their spending habits to reflect a hatred of the child slave trade, cacao farmers will stop trafficking young people.

That is what Fair Trade and Slave-Free chocolate can do. By buying certified Fair Trade or Slave-Free products, consumers can know that none of the chocolate they eat is coming from farms that benefit from child slavery. The more educated consumers demand a change in their chocolate's supply chain, the more larger companies will start to pay attention and see an incentive for change.

In addition, many Fair Trade and Slave-Free brands put their profits back into the cacao farms and communities. Instead of supporting child slavery, one candy bar can support education and sustainable farming in nations where children are at a great risk of trafficking.

Offenders

These chocolate companies are known to use slave-produced chocolate.

M&M Mars
Hershey
Kraft:(including Cadbury, Nabisco, Toblerone)
Nestlé
General Mills (including Häagen Dazs)
Lindt and Sprungli (including Ghirardelli)
Unilever (including Breyer's Ice Cream)
Godiva
and others

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A Note on Organics

Some chocolate companies, such as Newman's Own Organics, use only organic chocolate in their products. Currently organic chocolate is only grown in the Central and South American regions, and not in West Africa, which makes practically all organic chocolate slave-free.

In an attempt to eat only slave-free chocolate but not give up some of their favorite products, many people have chosen to eat organic chocolate. Organic chocolate is indeed almost completely slave-free, but the benefit of eating it does not reach the Ivory Coast, and thus does not encourage farmers in West Africa to stop using child slaves. On the contrary, it might do the opposite by limiting their incomes even more.

Individual consumers should decide on their own whether to set the bar at organic chocolate or at Fair Trade or Slave-Free chocolate. Of these three options, I and many abolitionist groups encourage the consumption of slave-free chocolate from the West African region when possible.

Large companies like Nestlé will sometimes make one organic or slave-free product to help their marketing, but still sell almost entirely slave-made chocolate in their other products. This practice should be avoided whenever possible. Companies should prove a true commitment to the cause of abolition, as opposed to using the problem of child slavery solely for marketing purposes.

The Best of Slave-Free Chocolate

These three companies all sell slave-free chocolate and give portions of the proceeds back to the farming communities. They all offer chocolate bars, baking chocolate and hot cocoa, and are widely available in stores.

Divine Chocolate
A fair-trade chocolate co-op
45% owned by cacao farmers in Ghana
http://www.divinechocolate.com

Equal Exchange
Partners with small farmer co-ops
http://www.equalexchange.coop/cocoa

Endangered Species Chocolate
Partners with Nigerian co-op,
Donates 10% of profits to Nigerian co-op villages & other partner programs
http://www.chocolatebar.com

For more slave-free chocolate companies, download the full guide on the resources page.

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Where to Buy Slave-Free Chocolate

Slave-free chocolate bars, baking cocoa, and hot chocolate mixes are all readily available. Wide variety at grocery stores and the growth of the internet make abolition much easier. The following locations are a good place to start, but there are many other places that sell delicious, slave-free chocolate.

Your neighborhood grocery store
Usually in a distinct section on the candy aisle
Look for the products on the previous page, or
Check for Fair Trade or Slave-Free stamps on the labels

Whole Foods, or a local organic market near you
Carries fair-trade, organic and slave-free chocolates
Find a location near you

Global Exchange
The leading online supplier of fair-trade products
Go to Global Exchange

Amazon.com
Sells organic and fair-trade chocolate; search by product or brand
Go to Amazon.com

Are You a Parent, Teacher, Student, Letter-Writer, or Person of Faith?

Download the Abolitionist Guide to Chocolate and Child Slavery on the resources page for customized ideas, further resources, and a detailed contact list for writing the chocolate companies.

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References

Learn more about the connection between chocolate and child slavery.

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All of the information below about chocolate and child slavery is also located in my resources section in PDF form for passing out to friends and using in groups. The free PDF contains extra information on slave-free chocolate brands, practical tips for fighting against slavery in the chocolate industry, and additional resources.

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For Ghiradelli to stop using child labor

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Ghirardelli: Fair Trade Certify Your Chocolate Products and Help Eliminate Child Labor!

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Hershey, Nestle & Mars all use child labor

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Mars, Nestlé and Hershey pledged nearly two decades ago to stop using cocoa harvested by children. Yet much of the chocolate you buy still starts with child labor.

By Photos by

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Warning: This graphic requires JavaScript. Please enable JavaScript for the best experience.

Five boys are swinging machetes on a cocoa farm, slowly advancing against a wall of brush. Their expressions are deadpan, almost vacant, and they rarely talk. The only sounds in the still air are the whoosh of blades slicing through tall grass and metallic pings when they hit something harder.

Each of the boys crossed the border months or years ago from the impoverished West African nation of Burkina Faso, taking a bus away from home and parents to Ivory Coast, where hundreds of thousands of small farms have been carved out of the forest.

These farms form the world's most important source of cocoa and are the setting for an epidemic of child labor that the world's largest chocolate companies promised to eradicate nearly 20 years ago.

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"How old are you?" a Washington Post reporter asks one of the older-looking boys.

"Nineteen," Abou Traore says in a hushed voice. Under Ivory Coast's labor laws, that would make him legal. But as he talks, he casts nervous glances at the farmer who is overseeing his work from several steps away. When the farmer is distracted, Abou crouches and with his finger, writes a different answer in the gray sand: 15.

Then, to make sure he is understood, he also flashes 15 with his hands. He says, eventually, that he's been working the cocoa farms in Ivory Coast since he was 10. The other four boys say they are young, too - one says he is 15, two are 14 and another, 13.

Abou says his back hurts, and he's hungry.

"I came here to go to school," Abou says. "I haven't been to school for five years now."

'Too little, too late'

The world's chocolate companies have missed deadlines to uproot child labor from their cocoa supply chains in 2005, 2008 and 2010. Next year, they face another target date and, industry officials indicate, they probably will miss that, too.

As a result, the odds are substantial that a chocolate bar bought in the United States is the product of child labor.

About two-thirds of the world's cocoa supply comes from West Africa where, according to a 2015 U.S. Labor Department report, more than 2 million children were engaged in dangerous labor in cocoa-growing regions.

When asked this spring, representatives of some of the biggest and best-known brands - Hershey, Mars and Nestlé - could not guarantee that any of their chocolates were produced without child labor.

"I'm not going to make those claims," an executive at one of the large chocolate companies said.

One reason is that nearly 20 years after pledging to eradicate child labor, chocolate companies still cannot identify the farms where all their cocoa comes from, let alone whether child labor was used in producing it. Mars, maker of M&M's and Milky Way, can trace only 24 percent of its cocoa back to farms; Hershey, the maker of Kisses and Reese's, less than half; Nestlé can trace 49 percent of its global cocoa supply to farms.

With the growth of the global economy, Americans have become accustomed to reports of worker and environmental exploitation in faraway places. But in few industries, experts say, is the evidence of objectionable practices so clear, the industry's pledges to reform so ambitious and the breaching of those promises so obvious.

Industry promises began in 2001 when, under pressure from the U.S. Congress, chiefs of some of the biggest chocolate companies signed a pledge to eradicate "the worst forms of child labor" from their West African cocoa suppliers. It was a project companies agreed to complete in four years.

To succeed, the companies would have to overcome the powerful economic forces that draw children into hard labor in one of the world's poorest places. And they would have to develop a certification system to assure consumers that a bag of M&M's or a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup did not originate with the swinging of a machete by a boy like Abou.

"I admit that it is a kind of slavery. ... But they bring them here to work, and it's the boss who takes the money."

Ivory Coast farmer

Since then, however, the chocolate industry also has scaled back its ambitions. While the original promise called for the eradication of child labor in West African cocoa fields and set a deadline for 2005, next year's goal calls only for its reduction by 70 percent.

Timothy S. McCoy, a vice president of the World Cocoa Foundation, a Washington-based trade group, said that when the industry signed onto the 2001 agreement, "the real magnitude of child labor in the cocoa supply chain and how to address the phenomenon were poorly understood."

Industry officials emphasized that, according to the pledge made to lawmakers, West African governments and labor organizations also bear some responsibility for the eradication of child labor.

Today, McCoy said, the companies "have made major strides," including building schools, supporting agricultural cooperatives and advising farmers on better production methods.

In statements, some of the world's biggest chocolate companies that signed the agreement - Hershey, Mars and Nestlé - said they had taken steps to reduce their reliance on child labor.

Other companies that were not signatories, such as Mondelez and Godiva, also have taken such steps, but likewise would not guarantee that any of their products were free of child labor.

In all, the industry, which collects an estimated $103 billion in sales annually, has spent more than $150 million over 18 years to address the issue.

But when the businesses initially made the promise to eradicate child labor, according to industry insiders and documents, the companies had little idea of how to do so. Their subsequent efforts have been stalled by indecision and insufficient financial commitment, according to industry critics.

Their most prominent effort - buying cocoa that has been "certified" for ethical business practices by third-party groups such as Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance, has been weakened by a lack of rigorous enforcement of child labor rules. Typically, the third-party inspectors are required to visit fewer than 10 percent of cocoa farms.

"The companies have always done just enough so that if there were any media attention, they could say, 'Hey guys, this is what we're doing,' " said Antonie Fountain, managing director of the Voice Network, an umbrella group seeking to end child labor in the cocoa industry. "It's always been too little, too late. It still is."

"We haven't eradicated child labor because no one has been forced to," Fountain added. "What has been the consequence . . . for not meeting the goals? How many fines did they face? How many prison sentences? None. There has been zero consequence."

According to the U.S. Labor Department, a majority of the 2 million child laborers in the cocoa industry are living on their parents' farms, doing the type of dangerous work - swinging machetes, carrying heavy loads, spraying pesticides - that international authorities consider the "worst forms of child labor."

A smaller number, those trafficked from nearby countries, find themselves in the most dire situations.

During a March trip through Ivory Coast's cocoa-growing areas, journalists from The Washington Post spoke with 12 children who said they had come, unaccompanied by parents, from Burkina Faso to work on cocoa farms.

While the ages they gave were consistent with their appearance, The Post could not verify their birth dates. In much of Burkina Faso, as many as 40 percent of births go unrecorded in official records, and many children lack identification documents.

The farms were easily visited because they typically lack fences, but people were often reluctant to talk about child labor, which is known to be illegal and is officially discouraged.

Asked about the extent of child migrants working on Ivorian cocoa farms, the farmer overseeing Abou and the other boys noted the steady stream of buses carrying people from Burkina Faso into the area. The Post's reporters also observed those buses during the March visit.

There's "a lot of them coming," said the farmer, who asked that his name not be used because he didn't want to attract attention from the authorities. "It's them who do the work."

The farmer said he was paying the boy's "gran patron," the "big boss" who manages the boys, a little less than $9 per child for a week of work and who would, in turn, pay each of the boys about half of that.

The farmer said he considers the boys' treatment unfair but hired them because he needed the help. The low price for cocoa makes life difficult for everyone, he said.

"I admit that it is a kind of slavery," the farmer said. "They are still kids and they have the right to be educated today. But they bring them here to work, and it's the boss who takes the money."

'It happens on a large scale'

What makes the eradication of child labor such a daunting task is that, by most accounts, its roots lie in poverty.

The typical Ivorian cocoa farm is small - less than 10 acres - and the farmer's annual household income stands at about $1,900, according to research for Fairtrade, one of the groups that issues a label that is supposed to ensure ethical business methods. That amount is well below levels the World Bank defines as poverty for a typical family. About 60 percent of the country's rural population lacks access to electricity, and, according to UNESCO, the literacy rate of the Ivory Coast reaches about 44 percent.

With such low wages, Ivorian parents often can't afford the costs of sending their children to school - and they use them on the farm instead.

Other laborers come from the steady stream of child migrants who are brought to Ivory Coast by people other than their parents. At least 16,000 children, and perhaps many more, are forced to work on West African cocoa farms by people other than their parents, according to estimates from a 2018 survey led by a Tulane University researcher.

"There is evidence that it happens, and it happens on a large scale," said Elke de Buhr, an assistant professor and principal investigator on the study, done in collaboration with the Walk Free Foundation, a group working to end forced labor, and funded by the Stichting de Chocolonely Foundation.

The child migrants arrive amid a vast wave of people entering from Burkina Faso and Mali. Ivory Coast is home to 1.3 million migrants from Burkina Faso and another 360,000 from Mali, according to the United Nations. Mali, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast share an agreement on open borders.

Upon arriving in Ivory Coast's cocoa-growing areas, child migrants are used to meet the demand on cocoa farms for arduous manual labor and stay year-round. There is land to be cleared, typically with machetes; sprayings of pesticide; and more machete work to gather and split open the cocoa pods. Finally, the work involves carrying sacks of cocoa that may weigh 100 pounds or more.

"Côte d'Ivoire has long been seen as a land of better opportunity in this part of the world," McCoy, the industry spokesman, said. "That particular sort of form of trafficking speaks to a broader phenomenon that is not specific to cocoa, is not specific to Côte d'Ivoire but speaks of people seeking opportunity and that happens all over the world."

'We are hungry'

From the Ivorian economic capital of Abidjan, the village of Bonon is a five-hour drive along two-lane roads pocked with pond-sized potholes. From the outskirts of the village, footpaths lead into the surrounding forests, where farmers have created groves of cocoa trees.

In a patch of woods one day in March, another group of boys was at work with machetes. Each said he had come from Burkina Faso to work on Ivory Coast's cocoa farms.

Like teen boys elsewhere, the boys near Bonon - Abou Ouedrago, 15; Karim Bakary, 16; and Aboudnamune Ouedrago, 13 - wore colorful branded sportswear. But they sleep in huts out in the woods, spend their days doing hard manual labor and don't attend school or see their families. Karim's yellow Adidas shirt was smeared with dirt. When one of the boys falls ill, they said they pool their money to go to the pharmacy.

"There is no money in Burkina. ... We came here to be able to have some money to eat."

Karim Bakary, child laborer

During a break in the typical March day - where the temperature ran into the 90s - the boys shared water scooped into a bucket from a nearby pond. It was milky white.

They said they came in search of a better life and are paid about 85 cents a day.

"There is no money in Burkina," said Karim, who said he arrived here four years ago when he was 12. "We suffer a lot to get some money there. We came here to be able to have some money to eat."

One time, he said proudly, he was able to send some money back home: $34. He said he would like to stay in Ivory Coast to make more money.

The most somber of the three was Aboudnamune. He wore a Spider-Man ball cap and rarely smiled. He said he arrived two years ago when he was 11. He answered questions haltingly, sometimes staring into the distance, and said he'd like to see his parents because "it's been a while."

"Yes, it's a little bit hard," he said of his life on the cocoa farms. "We are hungry, and we make just a small amount of money."

A 2009 Tulane survey, based on interviews with 600 former migrant cocoa workers, offered a grim look at the economics that lead to child trafficking. Traffickers typically offer the children, who could be as young as 10, money or more specific incentives, such as bicycles, to take the bus to Ivory Coast. About half of those interviewed said they were not free to return home, and more than two-thirds said they experienced physical violence or threats. Most had been looking for work, and some said the money they were promised was never paid.

The man who was managing the boys for the owner of the farm, who declined to give his name, offered his perspective.

"Their parents abandoned them," he said. "They come here to make a living."

Then, apparently concerned about the attention the interview was drawing from passersby, he asked The Post's journalists to leave the farm.

'A moral responsibility'

The most prominent, sustained public attention to the issue arose 18 years ago with reports from news organizations and the U.S. State Department that linked American chocolate to child slavery in West Africa.

"There is a moral responsibility . . . for us not to allow slavery, child slavery, in the 21st century," Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.) said at the time.

Engel introduced legislation that would have created a federal labeling system to indicate whether child slaves had been used in growing and harvesting cocoa. It allotted $250,000 to the Food and Drug Administration to develop the labels.

The measure passed the House, but the industry was adamant that no government regulation was necessary.

"We don't need legislation to deal with the problem," Susan Smith, then a spokeswoman for the Chocolate Manufacturers Association, told a reporter at the time. "We are already acting."

"Was there any chance of child labor being eradicated by 2005? No, never."

Peter McAllister, who led the International Cocoa Initiative from 2003 to 2010

Engel, along with then-Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), opted to negotiate an agreement with the chocolate companies.

Now known as the Harkin-Engel Protocol, the deal kept federal regulators from policing the chocolate supply.

But the deal committed the chocolate companies to eradicate child labor from their supply chains and to develop and implement "standards of public certification," which would indicate that cocoa products had been produced "without any of the worst forms of child labor."

The top officials of Hershey, Mars, Nestlé USA and five other chocolate companies signed onto the deal. The signing companies had "primary responsibility" for eradicating child labor, lawmakers said, but the Ivorian government, labor organizations and a consumer group also pledged support.

The protocol also specified a deadline: July 2005.

Over the next few years, the industry approached the challenge with working groups, pilot programs and attempts to redefine its promise.

The industry created the International Cocoa Initiative, which was supposed to coordinate company efforts. The companies also formed a short-lived panel called the Verification Working Group. In West Africa, the industry supported pilot projects for monitoring child labor.

Even some insiders say the early efforts were destined to fall short.

Peter McAllister, who led the International Cocoa Initiative from 2003 to 2010, said the companies were "desperate" to avoid the legislation and promised more than they could deliver.

"Was there any chance of child labor being eradicated by 2005? No, never," McAllister said. "They set themselves up for a bit of a disaster because of this magic date."

"One executive told me at that point, 'We would have signed a nuclear non-proliferation treaty,' " McAllister said.

Still, the industry gave the impression it was making progress. In February 2005, Smith, of the Chocolate Manufacturers Association, told an NPR interviewer that the deadline would be met.

"We have met every deadline established in the protocol agreement, and we'll continue to do so," she said. "We have large-scale tests of the monitoring system and the independent verification system in place. Those are going on now."

But as Engel and others pointed out at the time, the companies were not close to meeting the deadline four months away. There were no consumer labels in the works; there was no clear verification system; the worst forms of child labor had not been eradicated.

Shortly after the deadline passed, the industry sought to reconstrue the meaning of a key clause in the agreement.

In 2007, industry officials argued that the promised "standards of public certification" did not mean, as some negotiators had thought, the creation of consumer labels indicating that a chocolate bar was free of child labor.

"Everyone in that room negotiating understood we were there to create a labeling requirement," J. William Goold, Harkin's lead negotiator on the deal, said in an interview for this story. "We were talking about consumer labels on chocolate. Anybody who thinks the language in Harkin-Engel means anything other than labeling for consumers is engaged in cynical self-delusion."

Instead, the industry said, the agreement meant that the companies would produce statistics on West African "labor conditions" and "the levels" of child labor in West Africa.

In 2011, a decade after signing the deal, industry officials also suggested that it had committed the companies to an impossible task.

"The industry in fact does not know of any [certification] system that currently, or in the near term, can guarantee the absence of child labor, including trafficked labor, in the production of cocoa in West Africa," according to a 2011 letter from an industry group representing Hershey, Mars, Nestlé and other companies, to researchers working on a study funded by the U.S. Labor Department.

"There was - and is - no roadmap to implement the Protocol," the letter said. The "industry has in good faith carried out that agreement, while acknowledging several setbacks."

'Certification isn't enough'

As the industry struggled to come up with its own system for monitoring child labor, it increasingly turned to third parties to tackle the problem.

Three nonprofit groups - Fairtrade, Utz and Rainforest Alliance - provide labels to products that have been produced according to their ethical standards, which include a prohibition on child labor.

Over the past decade, the chocolate companies have pledged to buy increasing amounts of cocoa certified by one of these three groups. Mars reports buying about half of its cocoa from certified sources; Hershey reports 80 percent. In exchange for meeting the groups' ethical standards, farmers are paid as much as 10 percent more for their cocoa.

Yet some of the companies acknowledge that such certifications have been inadequate to the child labor challenge. The farm inspections are so sporadic, and so easily evaded, that even some chocolate companies that have used the labels acknowledge they do not eradicate child labor.

Inspections for the labels typically are announced in advance and are required of fewer than 1 in 10 farms annually, according to the groups.

"Put simply, when the [certification] auditors came, the children were ushered from the fields and when interviewed, the farmers denied they were ever there," according to a 2017 Nestlé report.

"Certification isn't enough," John Ament, Mars's global vice president for cocoa, told Reuters in September.

Or, as an industry group representing Mars and Hershey put it, in a 2011 letter to researchers: "Given the absence of farm level monitoring, none of the three major 'product certifiers' have claimed to offer a guarantee with respect to labor practices."

Representatives of the certifying groups acknowledge that their labels are imperfect tools for the eradication of child labor and that they are improving their methods.

"Child labor in the cocoa industry will continue to be a struggle as long as we continue to pay farmers a fraction of the cost of sustainable production. . . . Fairtrade isn't a perfect solution," said Bryan Lew, chief operating officer for Fairtrade America. But, he said, the higher prices for certified cocoa and the group's efforts to organize farmer cooperatives are steps toward alleviating its root cause: poverty.

While most major chocolate companies seek to buy at least some "certified" cocoa, Hershey has pursued certification more than others.

Hershey "will source 100 percent certified cocoa for its global chocolate product lines by 2020 and accelerate its programs to help eliminate child labor in the cocoa regions of West Africa," the company announced in a 2012 news release.

Leigh Horner, Hershey's vice president of corporate communications and sustainability, said the company's efforts are not reliant on the certifications alone. It views them instead "as one of many tools and strategies that need to be deployed. . . . Without the support of the local governments, these various efforts won't work."

'Severely inadequate'

One day this March, Amadou Sawadogo, 18, was preparing a patch of forest for a cocoa farm near the village of Blolequin, by the Liberian border.

He said he had been living in Burkina Faso and, when he was 16, came to Ivory Coast after "my father . . . asked [me] to come and look for money here."

Like others here, he said it was common for Burkinabe children to come with traffickers to work in Ivory Coast and that the financial arrangements are well-known. There are about 30 young Burkinabe working around Blolequin, he said. Payments from the traffickers to parents depended on a child's age. For a 15-year-old, he said, parents would be paid about $250. Once on the Ivorian farms, the boys make a little bit of money, typically less than a $1 per day, Sawadogo said.

None of this is legal under Ivorian law.

Ivory Coast signed the Harkin-Engel deal, too, and passed laws in 2010 and 2016 that define child labor and set penalties for its use. The Ivory Coast government committee handling child labor issues also said that it has taken other preventive measures: It built schools in rural areas and cracked down on people involved in child trafficking.

Child labor and child trafficking have flourished nonetheless because of the country's inability to enforce the laws. As U.S. State Department officials noted in a 2018 report, the primary police anti-trafficking unit is based in the nation's economic capital, Abidjan, several hours away from the cocoa-growing areas, and its budget is about $5,000 a year.

That amount, a State Department report says, is "severely inadequate."

In a statement to The Post, Ivory Coast's committee against child trafficking and child labor, said the $5,000 per year was not sufficient and that "the Ivorian government has to invest more in this area." The country also has faced the eruption of on-and-off civil wars in 2002 and 2011.

Making matters more complex, some of the young migrant workers, legally the victims of child labor, say they'd like to stay. Though he had arrived only two years ago, Sawadogo said he was prepared to stay in Ivory Coast and had started clearing his own patch of forest for a cocoa farm. On his plot of land, Sawadogo had built a small shelter out of branches. It was big enough for one person to sleep in. He owned a couple of battered metal bowls and had some oil, which he'd use to fry bananas picked for lunch.

"I haven't earned much money yet," he said. "But here I've made a little money."

'Nobody needs chocolate'

After missing the 2010 deadline, the industry established a less ambitious goal - to get a 70 percent reduction in child labor - and to do so by 2020. That goal, too, is unlikely to be met, the industry has indicated, and there is still no plan for consumer labels.

Over the years since striking the deal with the chocolate industry, Harkin and Engel have issued statements that sometimes supported the industry's evolving approach and other times laid out their hopes for more improvement.

Engel, now chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said policymakers have worked closely with the industry to make progress.

"The cocoa industry now makes serious investments in addressing child labor. We still have more work to do when it comes to this challenge," he said.

Engel said the Foreign Affairs Committee is working on legislation to address child labor and supply chain issues and will likely hold a hearing later this year focused on the matter.

Harkin did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

The problem, in part, according to some industry consultants, is that the companies have not done enough to fully investigate the depth of the problem.

The cocoa sector has sought "relatively little evidence relating to child slavery," according to a report by Embode, a human rights agency, for Mondelez, a U.S. company that includes several chocolate brands, including Cadbury and Toblerone. There has been a "general lack . . . of sufficient attention" to the problem, the report stated.

In the last major survey to measure progress against the Harkin-Engel goals, a 2015 report for the U.S. Labor Department found that, based on interviews with about 12,000 people, the number of child laborers reported to have worked in West Africa the previous year had increased to 2.1 million from 1.8 million in the previous survey, completed in 2009.

McCoy, of the World Cocoa Foundation, said the results were "in many ways . . . disappointing," especially given years of work on the issue. He did note some positive signs - of the Ivorian children working in cocoa, the percentage attending school had risen to 71 percent, up from 59 percent.

And, he noted, the companies have another program to combat child labor, one that now covers more than 200,000 West African farms.

The new system relies on hiring a local farmer to check other farms for child labor. If children are found working, the farmer is encouraged to send the children to school, and he or she is offered other assistance. The advantage, advocates say, is that the oversight comes from someone more like a social worker than a police officer.

In pilot programs, the new monitoring system reduced child labor by 30 percent over three years, but it's still not clear how willing the companies are to extend the program to their entire cocoa supply. It can cost about $70 annually per farmer.

"If child labor is a priority, this is commercially sustainable," said Nick Weatherill, executive director of the International Cocoa Initiative, which is developing the system.

Meanwhile, some experts note, what might be the most straightforward means of addressing child labor is scarcely mentioned: paying the farmers more for their cocoa. More money would give farmers enough to pay for their children's school expenses; alleviating their poverty would make them less desperate.

Under the Fairtrade program, cocoa farmers receive an extra 10 percent or more of prices, but that is not enough to lift the typical Ivorian farmer out of poverty.

One small Dutch company, Tony's Chocolonely, is paying an even bigger premium - about 40 percent more, in an attempt to provide a living wage. For a metric ton of cocoa beans that would normally fetch $1,300, Tony's pays an extra $520, or about $1,820.

Asked how likely it might be for other companies to follow suit, Paul Schoenmakers, a Tony's company executive, noted that many of the large chocolate brands may fear giving their competitors a price advantage by paying more. Schoenmakers said their premium cocoa price adds less than 10 percent to the cost of a typical chocolate bar.

"There's no economic textbook or management book that thinks that [paying more] is a good idea," he said.

The industry spokesman, McCoy, said he views the Tony's Chocolonely effort as an experiment.

"Tony's sources 7,000 tons of cocoa, which is a tiny amount. . . . How scalable is that approach?" McCoy said. "I think it's an open question."

But to Schoenmakers, it's a simple matter. "Nobody needs chocolate," he said. "It's a gift to yourself or someone else. We think it's absolute madness that for a gift that no one really needs, so many people suffer."

Why The Washington Post is publishing children's names and photos in this story

A reporter and photographer with The Washington Post spent 11 days in Ivory Coast reporting this story. Reporter Peter Whoriskey and photographer Salwan Georges traveled with a translator to three villages in the cocoa-growing region of the West African country: Bonon, Niambly and Blolequin. There, they interviewed 12 boys who gave their ages ranging from 13 to 18. The boys were working on farms harvesting cocoa, clearing brush with machetes and doing other work associated with cocoa production.

Before the interviews, Georges, through a translator, asked each boy if he agreed to be photographed and whether he consented to photographs that would identify him. Georges explained that such photos would circulate widely because The Post is available to millions of readers around the world and that may result in negative consequences for them. Most boys consented to having their faces photographed while several did not, so their photos were not published. All agreed to the use of their full names. Some of the boys interviewed remarked that they wanted their parents, who live in another country, to see their photos.

-

Design and development by Clare Ramirez. Photo editing by Bronwen Latimer. Map by Tim Meko. Copy editing by Sue Doyle.

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Hershey, Nestle and Mars won't promise their chocolate is free of child labor

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Nearly 20 years ago, the cocoa industry's biggest companies pledged to eradicate the "worst forms" of child labor in their supply chains. Why haven't they kept their promises?

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Is child labor in your chocolate - scorecard

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According to the US Department of Labor, more than 2 million children in Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire work in hazardous conditions growing cocoa, the main ingredient in chocolate 1. While some companies have begun tracing their supply chains to prevent child labor, the vast majority of the 3 million tons of cocoa produced each year come from small farms in West Africa, where farmers and their children live on less than $1 per day 2.

This scorecard will help you find ethically sourced sweets and understand what the certification labels on cocoa actually mean. This is, of course, not a comprehensive list of ethically sourced chocolate companies; however, the scorecard features companies who are also Green Business Network members, as Green America has screened them for their environmental, social justice, and human rights practices. Chocolate bars with an "A" rating are addressing farmer income and child labor issues, and are organic and/or non-GMO certified.

Most major chocolate companies have commitments to source more sustainable cocoa. In fact, many of them have plans to have 100% certified cocoa in their supply chain by 2020. Although this is an important step in the right direction, certification programs alone are not enough to solve the underlying issues that contribute to child labor in cocoa, including farmer poverty and a lack of infrastructure.

With that in mind, last year we expanded our chocolate scorecard to go beyond commitments about certified chocolate to look at programs that support farmers and address child labor when it is found. Additionally, while the scorecard's ratings are still heavily based on efforts to combat child labor, this year we've added a new category on deforestation. On top of a child labor problem, the cocoa industry has a huge negative impact on forests. In the Ivory Coast and Ghana, 90% of their forests have been lost and the cocoa industry is a big driver of that deforestation. Much of that deforestation was caused by the largest cocoa companies, and, as a result of activist pressure, they worked with the World Cocoa Foundation to create the Cocoa and Forest Initiative to prevent further damage.

With this updated scorecard, we are not only looking at how much certified cocoa a major chocolate company has, we are also looking to see if the company has innovative programs and projects in place to address some of the other underlying issues of child labor in cocoa and if the company is working to address deforestation. Although companies may have programs going beyond certification that sound similar, they can vary in practice in regards to how comprehensive and impactful they are, and the final grade reflects that.

Such programs include:

Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation Systems, which work with communities and families to address why child labor is happening on farms;

Farmer income generating programs;

Traceability mechanisms for fuller supply chain transparency.

You can learn more about what went into the different grades here. Click to here to download your own copy of Green America's Chocolate Scorecard
denotes members of Green America's Green Business Network.

Equal Exchange (EE) was founded to challenge the existing trade model, which often does not favor small scale farmers. EE's chocolate at a minimum meets fair trade standards but is no longer actively certified, as EE found certifiers to be tailored to the needs of big corporations and through the expansion of certifiers, some of the original values of the fair trade movement were weakened. Equal Exchange aims to create market access for small scale farmers, which at times was at odds with large certifiers. All EE chocolate suppliers are regularly audited against fair trade standards, and all EE products are fully traceable. On average EE pays more for cocoa than even the fair trade premium requires.

Godiva has committed to "100% sustainable cocoa by 2020," but has not provided information about who is certifying its cocoa, nor shared any progress or plans regarding their commitment.

All figures come from publicly available company information and the Cocoa Barometer. This list is not exhaustive of all chocolate companies. If your favorite chocolate brand is not listed, consider calling the company to ask about its commitment to ethical sourcing.

What The Certification Labels Mean

Label

About

Fairtrade

Fairtrade standards prohibit forced labor, child labor, and discrimination. If child labor is detected in a supply chain, Fairtrade immediately enacts its child protection policy and implements remediation efforts. Certified farmers' organizations receive at least the Fairtrade Minimum Price for their cocoa beans and a Fairtrade Premium that they use to invest in their communities and business. To use the FAIRTRADE certification mark on a product, all ingredients that can be certified must come from Fairtrade sources.

Fair Trade Certified

Fair Trade USA's Fair Trade Certified standards prohibit forced labor, child labor, and discrimination, and protects freedom of association and collective bargaining rights. If child labor should surface, remediation guidelines are in place. Certified farmers are guaranteed a fair trade floor price for their cocoa beans as well as a social premium. Fair Trade Certified certifies farmer cooperatives as well as larger plantations. Only cocoa needs to be certified for the chocolate bar to receive the seal.

IMO Fair For Life

The IMO Fair for Life guarantees that smallholder farmers receive fair payment and that workers enjoy good and fair working conditions. The Fair for Life system prevents forced and child labor and also includes detailed environmental criteria. Fair For Life certified products must use Fair Trade ingredients if available, and regardless, 50% of all ingredients must be Fair Trade in order for a product to bear the seal.

Rainforest Alliance (RA)

RA standards prohibit the use of forced labor, child labor, and discrimination, and farmers have the right to oragnize. RA does not require buyers to pay a specific minimum floor price for cocoa beans. RA reasons that by producing higher quality and sustainable cocoa beans, farmers should be able to earn a higher price for their beans over time.

UTZ

UTZ certification prohibits forced labor, child labor, and discrimination and protects the right to organize and bargain collectively. In terms of pricing, UTZ states that premiums are paid to farmers for their certified products, but the price is solely based on negotiations between the buyers and farmers. Paying the legal minimum wage is required.

NOTE: In 2018, Rainforest Alliance and Utz merged. In 2019, Rainforest Alliance will release its new standards. Until then, Rainforest Alliance and Utz standards will continue to be applied.

Updated October 16, 2019

1. DOL/Tulane University's 2013/14 Survey Research on Child Labor in the West African Cocoa Sector

2. 2018 Cocoa Barometer
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Chocolate Score Card, chocolate scorecard, chocolate score card

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Is Your Chocolate Produced By Child Labor?

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According to the US Department of Labor, more than 2 million children in Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire work in hazardous conditions growing cocoa, the main ingredient in chocolate 1.